Komodo dragon dies at Indonesia’s ‘zoo of death’
A police officer and a zoo employee take a Komodo dragon that was found dead in its cage for an autopsy, at Surabaya Zoo in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. AP.
SURABAYA, Indonesia—An endangered komodo dragon and a barking deer have died in the latest incidents to hit Indonesia’s largest and most problem-plagued zoo.
Zoo spokesman Agus Supangkat said Sunday that a seven-year-old dragon was found dead in his cage at the zoo in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, and that a pregnant barking deer had died shortly after a visitor reported it was having convulsions with foaming mouth.
The facility has long been plagued with problems, including premature deaths, uncontrolled breeding and a lack of funding. An online petition wants the government to close the facility, dubbed “the zoo of death.”
Supangkat says a police forensic team was performing autopsies to determine the cause of the deaths.
The death left the zoo with 57 komodo dragons, the world’s most critically endangered.
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